


The Ultimate Sacrifice

by RogerTaylorCanRawMe



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Captain America Civil War - Freeform, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Gen, Infinity War, Loads of Angst, Multi, NaNoWriMo, The Red Room
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 03:09:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16802446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogerTaylorCanRawMe/pseuds/RogerTaylorCanRawMe
Summary: Red Room student, Irina Ivanov, is rescued by Natasha Romanoff when she returns searching for her partner Bucky Barnes.Unfortunately, Barnes ends up back in the hands of the KGB, while Nat sets herself on a different path, partnering with SHIELD in the hopes that one day she’ll find him again.She raises Irina and recruits her to be a SHIELD agent; one of its most highly respected at that. While Natasha is off cleaning up the rest of the Soviets’ mess, Irina gets assigned a mission of her own. Looking after Steve Rogers when he’s pulled from the ice.Responsible for everything from preventing enemies of SHIELD from accessing Steve’s genes to Steve’s assimilation into the modern world, it’s no surprise that  the pair become close, much to the dislike of Irina’s mentor, Nick Fury.They remain inseparable until Barnes resurfaces, his mind wiped, his memories erased, with orders to quash any resistance within SHIELD towards Hydra’s plans. Steve learns that Irina had been tasked with monitoring all of Hydra’s assets within SHIELD, an unknown Project Zephyr operative, who would later turn out to be Barnes, is one of them. Incapable of forgiving Irina, both Steve and Natasha distance themselves from her.





	The Ultimate Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! Just posting a prelude to the fic I've been writing for NaNoWriMo. Let me know what you think. 
> 
> As always, thanks for reading!

“You have no place in the world.”

Those words swimmed inside Irina’s head as she gripped the pistol. Her target’s hands were tied tight, their head stooped inside a sack. 

“You can’t fail.”

Irina took a deep breath and centred herself. She stood tall and squeezed the trigger. 

The glass behind her target shattered, knocking the breath from her lungs. She believed she had missed. She was resigned to her fate if she had. Until she saw a woman, clad in black. 

The woman didn't attack the pupils, the deadliest class of Widows the Red Room had ever trained. No, she went straight for Mirazhov, the teacher who, moments ago, was goading Irina to kill an innocent man. The woman who convinced Irina that her parents were traitors and that she should be the one to make up for that. A fanatic, a sadist. Pure evil. 

She was no match for the intruder, though, whose gun was pointing at her head. Mirazhov raised her hands, surrendering. 

The other instructors must have heard the commotion. What sounded like a hundred pairs of boots began to close in. Irina silently willed the intruder to pull the trigger. But she was stuck in a freeze frame of that moment.

Mirazhov goaded the intruder, smirking. “Natalia, home at last. I knew my greatest creation could not have gone far.”

Natalia heard the threat approaching. Instantly, the still, almost serene, picture she painted became saturated in blood. Mirazhov dropped to the floor and all hell broke loose. 

The little Widows should have armed themselves against their captors, Irina thought. Instead they poised themselves, taking on their liberator. Irina darted inside the munitions cupboard beside the fireplace on her left, taking cover. It was tall enough for her to stand at height, with wooden slats she could peer out of.

Natalia’s pain was clear as she saw the young girls approach, knowing exactly what their next move was. Against her. 

She broke the first girl’s neck like glass. Then she picked another up by her throat and threw her out of the broken window, to a five storey fate. Natalia ploughed through the girls like they were nothing.

She was calm and unfeeling as her former mentors approached. There were ten. 

Irina’s heart threatened to beat out of her chest. Natalia ran at the group of assassins with no fear, spring-boarding one deadly attack off of another. She shot one man as she strangled another with her legs. Then she gracefully leapt from body to body until there was no one else to kill. It was like an art.

She stood in the middle of the room. The blood pooled across the black and white marble floor. It snaked its way up to her boots. She couldn't take her eyes off of it. The Red Room was quiet.

Irina feared being alone here. She knew there were other Red Room operatives, and she knew she would be of use to them if she were ever caught. After all, she was only a week away from her graduation ceremony. 

She creaked open the door and stepped out, her arms raised, like Mirazhov. Unlike Mirazhov, though, Irina was a scared 14 year old, searching for a way out.

Natalia’s head darted around as she searched for the source of the movement. She grabbed her blood spattered pistol from its holster, lining it up with one last target. 

“Please,” Irina whimpered. “They killed my parents, I don’t want to be here. I can help.”

Natalia’s hands shook, but she didn’t waver. 

“Please help me!” Irina screamed.

Natalia lowered her pistol without a word. 

“Thank you.”

“I’m so sorry,” Natalia whispered, stretching out her arms. It was as if all her own childhood memories had come back to haunt her.

Irina hugged the stranger, letting out a pained sigh.

“I’m going to get you out of here. Make sure you’re safe,” she assured Irina, “but first, there’s something I need to do. Can you help me?”

Irina nodded. 

“I need you take me to Belova, she’s taken something special from me and I want it back. Do you know where she is?” Natalia asked. Her green eyes were welling with tears in the dark. 

“She’s in her office. You know she won’t go without a fight,” Irina warned. 

“Don't you worry. I’ve been waiting for this,” Natalia assured Irina, sweeping a strand of hair from her face.

Irina stood up straight, realising that this was her chance to escape. “Let’s go.”

Irina and Natalia wandered through the halls of the Red Room. They stuck close to each other for fear of rogue students springing an attack on them. Arm in arm. Irina’s eyes shifted from one classroom to the next, as did Natalia’s. “Was it like this when you were here?” Irina asked.

“It hasn’t changed a bit. How many people go here now?”

“There are a few younger ones, maybe ten. They’re closing this place to be closer to the Kremlin.”

“I was one of the first graduates,” Natalia pondered, “I fell in love here, they sent us out into the world together. And then they tore us apart.”

Irina looked at Natalia with a sullen expression. “Love is for children.” 

That was a statement Natalia hadn't heard in a long time. She sighed, figuring it was true.

Together, the began ascending the enormous, grand staircase. One step at a time.

Reaching the top of the staircase, they stared down a grimy green corridor. It had four dorms, two on either side. These were the girls’ living quarters. The instructors lived on the top floor in much more pleasant conditions. Luxury, apparently. 

Natalia and Irina exchanged a look, before taking the first steps to Yelena Belova’s office at the very end. 

Belova was one of the Red Room’s most notorious graduates. She climbed to the highest ranks of the KGB and the president trusted her with his life. She disposed of anyone who posed a threat to Russia upon his command. This was the reason for the Kremlin move. 

Belova was quick and lithe with features that could carve stone. Not only that, but she knew Irina’s parents, Boris and Petra, intimately. She was the one who killed them. She cited their dissent against the regime as the prime reason for their gruesome deaths. 

Half way down the corridor, they saw a figure appear in the window pane of Belova’s door. It was her. 

Natalia quickly shoved one of her pistols into Irina’s hand and shoved her into the dorm on their right. She ducked into the dorm opposite.

Irina’s heart pounded as Belova’s door creaked open. 

Her trademark stiletto heels clicked louder and closer. 

Irina held the pistol close to her body, waiting for a sign. . 

Natalia maintained eye contact with Irina, holding up three fingers… two… one. 

Irina and Natalia burst out into the corridor and landed shots to Belova’s legs and shoulders. Belova herself dropped her pistol, her injuries incapacitating her. 

Natalia moved fast, kickling the gun clear of Belova’s reach. Then she hauled the headmistress up against the wall by her hair. 

“I’ve been waiting for you Natalia,” Belova spat. 

“Tell me where Barnes is.”

Belova sneered. “Love is for children, Natalia. Didn’t we ever tell you that?”

Natalia cocked her head to the side and pressed her gun to Yelena’s chin. 

“If you kill me, you’ll never know where your love is.”

“There are plenty more rats on the ship.”

“And even when you find him, he won’t remember you. He never will. He’s on the correct path now. He will wipe out all enemies of Russia.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s home, Natalia.”

Without missing a beat, Natalia pulled the trigger. She was coated in another layer of blood.

Belova was well connected. Word of her assassination would spread quickly. There was no way back from this. 

“We have to go,” Irina annoucned, pulling at Natalia’s arm.

Natalia turned around, smiling at Irina. “Let’s get you out of here for good.”


End file.
